The Digimon Detective
by Shara Raizel
Summary: One night on his way home from a KID heist Hakuba Saguru comes across a strange looking cat and is introduced to the existence of Digimon. While finding the balance between being a graduating high school detective and his new job as a consultant agent for DATS, Saguru gets caught up in a series of events that will change his life forever. ShinRan HeiKaz KaiAo eventual KaiAoHaku
1. Wet Fur

Man I really need to stop coming up with new stories, but I really couldn't help this one. It combines my 2 favorite series (Detective Conan and Digimon) staring my current all time favorite character Hakuba Saguru from Gosho Aoyama's Magic Kaitou & Detective Conan series. This has been a side project that I've been working on in my free time when I'm not writing my other Digimon fan fics, or... shamelessly writing fics for my favorite yaoi pair, KaiHaku. Anyway, this is a fic I don't intend to write regularly unless it gets a major response or something. I WILL update it, just not consistently (not that the updates for any of my current works have been consistent as of late, but I digress). I suppose you could say that this is a preview of a fic that I DO plan to one day write regularly (maybe when I'm done with Fullmetal Wizard or Drowning Memories).

All the main character in this will have their original Japanese names, and I'll do my best with the Digimon and their attacks, but I might use the English names for some of them (one example is actually introduced in this chapter).

Time-line wise, this fic takes place after the events of Detective Conan & Magic Kaitou (which I'm placing roughly 1 year after the start of DC) so because I figure that the MK cast is 1 year older than DC, Hakuba, Kaito, and Aoko are 18 (seniors) and Shinichi, Ran, Heiji, and Kazuha are 17 (juniors). As for the Digimon Savers aspect of this fic, this takes place roughly a year before Masaru meets Agumon and joins DATS. This fic will continue on though and follow events of the season to it's conclusion.

* * *

Chapter 1: Wet Fur

Hakuba Saguru wasn't sure which of the many Japanese Gods he'd managed to piss off this time, but someone up there hated him. It was pouring rain outside and he was without a ride, had no umbrella and was covered in a thick coat of sticky gunk that he'd ended up drenched in during the latest Kaitou KID heist. Even with the rain hammering down on him, Saguru found that the unknown substance wasn't coming off. Normally this wouldn't bother him, but tonight his fellow detectives Kudo Shinichi and Hattori Heiji had been in attendance at the heist as well. He didn't usually mind Kudo being there, but Hattori was a pain in the ass and, more often than not, Kudo backed up his hotheaded Osakan friend nine times out of ten. Hattori and Saguru simply couldn't stand each other.

Hattori seemed to be convinced that Saguru was a spoiled rich brat who was slow in his deductive skills, and therefore the lesser of the three genius teenage detectives. Saguru couldn't stand Hattori because of the teen's reckless behavior, hotheaded temper, and overly competitive nature. Now normally he wouldn't have much of a problem working with someone like Hattori – he'd had to do so many times in the past – but it was Hattori's dismissal of Saguru's deductive skills that offended him. He'd made one mistake in their first case together and had been dubbed a stuck up wanna-be detective by the Osakan. Saguru's mistake had been the result of the fact that he'd rushed his usually methodical and clinical process of analyzing the case in the heat of competition – which Hattori apparently thrived in. If Saguru had just stepped back from the whole case like he usually did, he'd have figured the case out before Edogawa Conan – whom he now knew as Kudo Shinichi after working with the other detective to help bring down the Black Organization. It had also been the only time that Saguru had been able to work with Hattori without much argument due to the seriousness of the case.

But even after helping his fellow detectives bring down the Black Organization, Hattori always seemed to look down upon Saguru because of his choice to handle theft, missing persons, and cold cases instead of working homicide. Kudo didn't really care one way or another about the degree of Saguru's deductive abilities or what kind of cases he applied those skills to so long as he remained competent, the case they were working on together got solved, and the right person went to jail. Thankfully since the takedown of the Organization Saguru only had the misfortune of running into the Osakan at Kaitou KID heists.

Speaking of heists, Saguru sighed in frustration as he tried to pick some of the gunk off of him. Hattori had found it hilarious that Saguru had fallen into one of KID's more annoying traps. Giving up on removing the goop for now, Saguru trudged towards home. The only good thing about the stuff was that it appeared to be waterproof, so he wasn't quite soaked to the bone and still somewhat warm.

As he was passing by an alleyway though, there was a bright flash of light that made him pause at the entrance. For a moment Saguru wondered if he was dreaming because there was a bunch of pulsing rings whirring in the air hovering roughly three stories above the ground. Saguru stared, entranced for a moment until something dropped out of it, landing in an open dumpster. Then with another bright flash the rings were gone, returning the alley to its dark and dreary state.

Unable to reign in his curiosity, Saguru approached the dumpster and peered inside to see what had fallen out of the strange apparition. In the poor lighting and the heavy rain, Saguru could only make out a vague shape that didn't appear to be another garbage bag. It was a sizable shape, but nothing too big. He was about to reach in and grab it, when the shape suddenly moved and hissed at him. Startled, Saguru stumbled backwards with a yell and fell onto a stack of soaked cardboard boxes.

When he looked up he saw a white cat glaring at him from where it now perched on the lip of the dumpster. It was the strangest cat he had ever seen. It's front paws were covered with clawed green gloves that had orange stripes on them. It's tail had purple stripes with a purple tuft of fur at the end. There were purple tufts on the tips of it's ears as well. The strange cat also had the sharpest pair of blue eyes he'd ever seen. Saguru frowned for a moment before shaking his head and stood back up. A soft ripping sound informed him that some of the cardboard had come away with him, sticking to his backside. He grimaced as he tried to pry it off. The cat made an angry noise low in it's throat at him.

"Ok, I don't blame you," Saguru chuckled bitterly. "I wouldn't want to be touched by me either. Not with this shit all over me. Damn KID."

He tried to pull off a bit more, but only succeeded in transferring the wet paper to his hands.

"Screw this!" he huffed before sneezing violently, causing him to growl in miserable frustration.

"Hehe."

Saguru froze before rounding on the cat and looking into those blue eyes. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that the cat had just laughed at him and that it looked amused.

"Great. Just great," he grumbled. "I'm catching a cold and hearing things. I'm gonna kill the Kaitou KID the next time I see him."

CLANG!

Saguru frowned again, glancing back down the alley. He could swear that he'd just seen another flash of light. The cat was hissing again, it's hackles raised as it stared down the alley as well.

"So you heard it too, huh?" Saguru frowned.

There was another clanging sound and Saguru began to weigh the pros and cons of checking things out. He was only a few more blocks from his house. He could go home, take a warm bath, scrub the gunk off of him, and eat something… Or he could remain out in the rain, go check out this second disturbance, and catch his death of pneumonia. With a groan and cursing his curiosity, Saguru headed further into the alley. He saw a streak of white fly by him, and noted that the strange cat was coming too, staying a few steps ahead. Maneuvering around a few more dumpsters, Saguru and the cat entered an intersection of alleyways. Saguru strained his hearing for a minute or two, but he couldn't hear anything over the still pouring rain as it crashed nosily down on the metal lids of trashcans and dumpsters, and thumping heavily on wood, pavement and the surrounding buildings.

"I don't suppose you can detect anything?" Saguru asked the cat.

The cat looked up and stared at him, cocking its head to the side, blinking curiously at him before nodding and heading off down the alley on their left. Saguru froze for a second and stared after the cat, wondering if he was already really sick and hallucinating now. He considered going back and getting home like he should, but something inside him told him that he needed to follow that cat. Something was going on and he needed to find out what it was. He didn't know how he knew this, but he just sensed that the world as he knew it was about to change. He wasn't wrong.

* * *

Saguru followed the strange cat down a series of alleyways until they came upon an uncovered manhole that led into the sewers. The cat wrinkled it's nose as it stared down into the hole. Saguru frowned as he knelt down and inspected the removed cover. He lifted it up a little to get a better look at something on it in the streetlight, only to drop it in alarm as his hand heated up. Bewildered, he stared at his hand as the goop that coated it melted away and left light minor burns on his hand. A burning smell soon reached his nose and he realized that it was coming from the manhole cover. Looking at it, and comparing it to the size of the manhole, he realized that it was a little smaller than it should be.

"Acid?" he murmured out loud, slipping his hand into his coat sleeve before handling the lid again.

The acidic substance wasn't as affective on his coat due to the combined efforts of the rain and sludge coating his attire, but it still ate away some of the gunk on him. Instead of scaring him, Saguru found himself intrigued as to what could have possibly made up the substance coating the sewer lid. He took out a small specimen jar from the inside of his coat and managed to scrape a sample off from the manhole cover. Surprisingly it didn't melt through the plastic. Strange. Just to be safe though, Saguru put the small jar inside one of the bigger containers he carried and sealed it in an evidence bag.

After pocketing his find again he left the lid alone and moved to crouch beside the cat. The smell was horrible and he knew he was going to regret this, but he lowered himself into the hole anyway. Just before he could disappear down the manhole completely, Saguru felt a weight latch itself onto his shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the strange white cat.

"Oh _now_ you're willing to get near me," Saguru snorted before continuing down into the sewer. "Alright, hold tight."

He could feel the cat's claws digging into his coat as he slowly lowered himself deeper into the filth filled underground part of Tokyo. Once he reached the bottom he dug through his pockets to pull out his flashlight, thankful that it had survived KID's tricks and had mercifully remained relatively gunk free.

"Thank God for small miracles," he murmured as he turned the high beam light on. He stared in shock as he saw great smears of a grey substance on the sewer walls that seemed to be creating gash-like marks in the brickwork. "What the hell?" he frowned as he cautiously pressed a part of his sleeve into the substance and watched as more of KID's gunk melted away. "Same acidic substance that was on the man hole cover," he mused, as he looked at the cat still perched on his shoulder. "Now what do you suppose did this?"

The cat blinked at him and looked like it was shrugging.

"…I'm talking to a cat," Saguru sighed, looking away. "Oh Hattori would love to see me in this sorry delusional state. It's not like you can talk back to me. Whatever. Lets find out what the hell is going on here and then I can loose my sanity from the comforts of home."

The cat seemed to purr in amusement as Saguru examined the direction the smears appeared to be going in and carefully walked along on the ledges lining the sewer as the gushing river of filth and rainwater rushed past them. After an hour of navigating through the city sewer system Saguru and his feline companion came upon a tunnel that led to an intersection of sorts where they spotted this mass of filth, slim and debris trudging along into the intersection. It surprised Saguru to see the mass _move_ as if it were looking around and trying to decide which direction to go in. He couldn't quite hold back a soft gasp as the… whatever it was, turned it's great bulk and he saw that the thing actually had _eyes_ and a gaping mouth in what he supposed was a head.

"By God in heaven… What is that thing?" he breathed softly, which turned out to be a bad idea. The thing _stinked_ and made him gag a little. "I think we ought to get out of here." The cat gave an uneasy sounding growl, head bobbing in a nodding motion that he took to be a sign of agreement. Gulping and trying not to throw up, Saguru backed away slowly. Unfortunately his footing slipped on something and he found himself falling off the ledge and into the sewer water with a loud slash, somehow not loosing hold of his flashlight. When he surfaced with a gasp, he saw that the sludge creature had noticed him and let out a roar as it approached him with surprising speed.

"Don't just stand there gaping! Move your tail!"

Whirling around, Saguru spotted the strange cat that had been smart enough to jump off his shoulder when he'd fallen. It was standing on the walkway still relatively dry… on its two hind legs like a person… and it had spoken to him.

"I said move it!" the cat hissed in a young woman's voice before turning away to stare down the sewer creature that was still raging towards them. Saguru decided that now was not the right time to question his sanity as he climbed back onto the walkway. The cat meanwhile launched itself at the sludge monster and _punched _it in the face right between it's eyes with it's clawed gloves.

"Neko Punch!"

The creature fell back, roaring angrily as the cat jumped back and landed in front of Saguru with her back to him, still facing the thing – at least he thought the cat was a her since it had a feminine sounding voice.

"Acid Sludge!" the creature belched as it vomited a grotesque projectile at them.

Saguru was reacting more than anything, as he grabbed the cat by the scruff of her neck and bolted as fast as he dared to go down the sewer tunnels and around the nearest corner. He managed to miss most of that attack but from the burning smell, he could tell that some traces of that acidic sludge had managed to hit the back of his coat. He and the cat weren't out of trouble yet though. The ground beneath his feet shook and nearly sent him falling back into the sewer river again. He let the cat go when he felt they were a reasonable distance away from the sewer monster, only for her to jump up onto his shoulder again.

"Don't stop, keep moving!" she yowled as the rank smell of the sewer intensified in it's foul odor, meaning that the creature wasn't that far behind them. So Saguru kept running, taking directions from the strange talking white cat wearing green gloves on his shoulder. Saguru nearly cried with relief when he spotted a ladder that led to the surface. He tucked away his flashlight and climbed as quickly as he could without slipping while the sewer monster gained on them. Just as he was beginning to wonder how he was going to lift the manhole cover in time to escape the creature, the cat jumped up off his shoulder and punched the sewer lid off.

Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, Saguru scrambled up the last few steps out of the sewers and back into the fresh air and stormy weather. The cat jumped back onto his shoulder as he took off out of the alleyway they had found themselves in and ran as far away as he could from the manhole and the sewer creature it contained. He didn't stop until he came to a park and leaned against the nearest lamppost, panting. His lungs were heaving for air as he nearly bent himself in half, bracing his hands on his knees.

The cat jumped off his shoulder, landing on her two hind legs like a person and looked around their new surroundings warily.

"What… the hell… was that?" Saguru wheezed.

"I'm not sure," the cat sighed. "But it's a Champion level Digimon. One I'm not strong enough to defeat on my own."

"What are you talking about?" Saguru gasped, looking at the cat incredulously. "Just what are you?"

"I'm Tailmon, a Digimon," she stated plainly. "I'm from the Digital World."

"And what is a Digimon?" he asked.

"Digimon is short for Digital Monster," the cat explained.

"And you're from another world," Saguru shook his head wondering if he wasn't just hallucinating and imagining this whole thing. Maybe KID had gotten him with his knockout gas after all and this was all just a dream. "And that thing back there… it was a Digimon too?"

"Yes, that's right," Tailmon nodded. "I don't know what it was though because I've never seen that kind of Digimon before. I'm from a very secluded part of the Digital World. I was just taking a stroll through the forest when that thing attacked me. I ran to try and find a better vantage point to fight it off when I fell through a hidden portal. It must have followed me through the rift between worlds that brought me here to your world. To the human world. …It's not quite what I expected it to be."

"You should see it during the day when it's not raining," Saguru sighed as he straightened up to his full height.

"You're a funny human," Tailmon smiled, looking amused. Oh how had Saguru thought that this creature was merely a goofy looking cat? It had too many human-like expressions and mannerisms to be normal.

"Well you're a funny looking cat," Saguru sighed, hitting his head back lightly against the lamppost he was standing under.

"Well I'm not the one stuck to a light," the cat grinned.

Saguru blinked then groaned as he realized that he was in fact sticking to the lamppost. To his surprise though he came off easily. He took a look at himself and found that most of KID's goop had been removed from his person. Then a blast of wind hit him and he shivered, teeth chattering together.

"Uh… lets get out of the rain," he stuttered as he looked around for landmarks that would tell him where they where. The cat Digimon creature nodded, jumping up to perch on his shoulder again. He would have protested, saying something to the effect that he wasn't a pack mule, but her body was warm and was keeping some part of him warm at least.

Thankfully the park they were in wasn't too far from his house and after a half hour jogging through the rainstorm he made it home, entering through the back door that was next to the laundry room. With a relieved sigh he removed his heavy rain soaked jacket only to cringe when he saw the singed back. The sewer creature's acid may have removed the gunk KID had covered him with (at the heist that seemed ages ago now) but it had ruined his jacket beyond repair. After emptying it of its contents Saguru mournfully threw it away. He'd really liked that jacket too.

Making sure that he wasn't making too big of a mess, Saguru headed upstairs to his room with Tailmon still perched on his shoulder. His first stop was the adjoining bathroom where he striped out of his clothing in the shower while Tailmon sat on the counter next to the bathroom sink. He made sure to thoroughly scrub the remaining goop off his person and out of his hair. His hair was the most troublesome bit. Luckily, being experienced in predicaments like this, Saguru had a bottle of vinegar in the shower that helped work the rest of the strange substance out of his hair and off his skin. Something about vinegar just broke down the chemical make up of whatever the Kaitou KID made his slime out of. Of course now he stinked of vinegar, but at the moment he really didn't care. It was better than reeking of garbage and filth. Then he proceeded to scrub himself down until his skin felt raw. He'd been down in the sewers after all and had even fallen into its rank. He made a mental note to just go ahead and toss the entire outfit he'd worn that night. It would take too much effort to salvage it anyway. When he was finished he grabbed a towel, wrapped it around his waist and got out of the shower.

Tailmon had apparently fallen asleep while he'd been showering so he let her be and prepared the bath for a nice soak, even adding his favorite smelling salt to the bath water. While the tub was filling up he decided to dispose of his ruined attire and put on his rarely used swim trunks. When the tub was full he woke up the slumbering feline and eased into the nice warm water with her. She resisted at first but when he began to wash the muck out of her fur and massaged circles into her tense muscles, she purred up a storm. When he was done cleaning her, he leaned back and just allowed himself to soak and enjoy the nice bath that was washing away the smell of vinegar. Tailmon was curled up on his chest where he continued to pet her as she drifted off to sleep. When Saguru felt himself begin to nod off he got out of the tub, drained it, and proceeded to dry himself and the cat off. She roused a bit during that but fell right back to sleep as he carried her into his bedroom.

Now there was nothing Saguru wanted to do more than to follow the feline's lead and go to sleep, but the stubborn part of his brain insisted that he clean up the small mess he'd made when he came home so that poor Baaya didn't have to do it and his father wouldn't get mad and yell at him. So it was with great reluctance that he headed downstairs after setting the Digimon cat down on a pillow on his bed, got out the cleaning supplies and spent the next hour cleaning up the trail he'd made from the back door to the laundry room and upstairs to his room and bath. He even cleaned up his bathroom just to be thorough. He also took care of the items that had been on his person during his trek through the sewers, disposing of any and all ruined articles, and setting aside the specimen jar he'd collected with the sample from the manhole cover. For the first time ever, Saguru was glad that his classmate Kuroba Kaito had nicked his favorite pocket watch and had yet to return it. He would have been devastated to have had his prized possession ruined in the sewers.

It was around 4 o'clock in the morning when Saguru finally crawled into bed exhausted and wishing that the night's events had been nothing more than a bad dream.

* * *

So that's what I have so far for The Digimon Detective! If you think I should write more please let me know in a comment or something! Otherwise (with the rate I've been updating lately) it could be forever before I update. I plan for Kaito and Aoko to be in the next chapter and maybe introduce someone from DATS as well.

Oh, and as for couples in this fic it's going to be ShinRan, HeiKaz, and it'll start out with KaiAo, but it'll eventually branch out and become KaiHakuAo. I had originally planed for just a KaitoXAoko pairing since I wanted to have canon relationships, but I'm a huge fan of HakubaXKaito and have recently fallen in love with the HakuKaiAo threesome and since there is hardly anything out there for the trio, I decided that that was the relationship I was going to go with. The romance won't be a major component in this fic (at least not for a while yet) so if you don't care for it... it's not going to be a real issue until WAY later in the story.


	2. Getting to Know You

Wow did this take a while to write up, but after spending all my energies over the last month writing updates for UGotD, Drowning Memories and Parent Worries, I figured that it was time to revisit this little fic-y in my fan fics folder, and it actually wrote itself pretty fast...ish. This chapter is in Tailmon's POV and I found it to be pretty limiting since Tailmon spends 2/3 of the chapter hiding underneath Saguru's bed... And I had to go back so many times because I kept typing Gatomon instead of Tailmon. :P Seriously, I did it like 5 times within just the first 3 pages when typing it out on Word! And then I found myself going back over and over again to make sure she didn't have any vocab that would seem out of place for a character experiencing the human world for the first time. Some of those parts got to be pretty fun though. I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter from her perspective. This is only the second chapter I've written in a Digimon's POV (first one was Veemon's in UGotD), so I hope I did alright! :D

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Chapter 2: Getting to Know You

Tailmon woke up feeling nice and warm. She was lying on something soft and she didn't want to move. She did open her eyes however, and took in her surroundings. She'd never seen anything like the flat walls that made up the human's dwelling or the strange grass that covered the floor. One of the walls had a square hole in it that allowed sunlight in and brightened up the space though, so she supposed that whatever this place was it wasn't so bad. She wasn't sure what she was lying on, but she did recognize the human boy from the night before lying next to her curled in on himself, but something wasn't right. His breathing was heavy and even in the better lighting, his pale skin was tinged pink.

Rising from the strange poufy thing she'd been lying on, Tailmon got up and made her way over to the human boy. She gently pressed her forehead against his and frowned when she felt how hot it was. The boy hadn't been this hot last night. Something was wrong with him. Before she could ponder what to do next, she heard the sound of heavy footsteps padding softly towards the rectangle of wood that blocked this chamber off from the other boxed in spaces that made up the human's dwelling. Instinct took over and she jumped down onto the strange spongy grass and darted under the raised platform that she and the boy were on. She assumed that it had to be where one slept – the human equivalent of a nest.

A minute later another human entered the space. This one appeared to be female and was much older than the boy. She didn't look anything like him. She was short, and had narrow beady grey eyes set in her wrinkly face. She reminded Tailmon a little of the Babamon elders back home in the Digital World.

"Master Saguru, you should be up getting ready for school," the female human huffed as she crossed the room to pull aside a hanging length of cloth that revealed another pair of wooden rectangles set in the wall adjacent to the one with the square. Although, unlike the rectangle of wood that she'd come through, these two rectangles had panes of a clear material in them like the square hole, and let in even more sunlight.

The boy grunted before letting out a series of loud hacking coughs that sounded like he was trying to throw up a hairball. From her position beneath the raised nest Tailmon didn't know how the human looked, but she could tell that the coughing had left him winded as he wheezed in and out softly.

"Mater Saguru!" the old female gasped, rushing towards the nest. It was quiet for another minute before she spoke again. "You're burning up with a fever! How late were you out last night? Don't tell me you were out in that downpour!"

"I'm afraid… that I… was," the boy panted.

"Well you lie back down right this instant!" the female screeched. "I'll call the school to inform them that you're ill and I'll be up later with something warm and light to eat."

"Thank you… Baaya," the boy whispered as the female bustled out of the chamber, shutting the rectangle of wood behind her.

Tailmon waited until she could no longer hear the elder human's footsteps before climbing out from her hiding spot and jumped back onto the raised platform nest-thing.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

The boy was startled a bit, head jerking in her direction. He stared at her for a moment before sighing and dragged a hand over his face.

"So last night wasn't a dream," he mumbled.

"I'm afraid not, human," Tailmon purred in amusement.

"I'm fine. …Tailmon, isn't it?" the boy asked softly. Talking in a low voice and soft tone seemed to help him speak easier without irritating his throat too much. It was no problem for Tailmon. She had exceptional hearing.

"That's right. And you're Saguru," she nodded. "That's what the female called you, isn't it?"

"Ah… yes," the boy nodded. "I didn't introduce myself last night, did I? I – _cough_ –apologize. That was rude of me."

"I didn't exactly ask for it," Tailmon mused. "And I think any rudeness on your part can be forgiven since you gave me shelter from the rain, washed my fur of filth, and let me rest in your nest."

"Nest?" the boy blinked in confusion.

"Your sleeping space," Tailmon elaborated, tugging gently on the cloth beneath her.

"Oh… it's called a bed, actually," the human informed her. "Anyway, forgiven or not, I really should – _cough_ – introduce myself properly. My name is Saguru Hakuba. It's nice to meet you, Tailmon."

"The pleasure's mine," Tailmon smirked. "You really are a strange human. You're nothing like what I'd expected humans to be like. You're certainly a polite one at any rate. Are all humans like that or is it just you?"

"Well, no," Saguru sighed with a light cough. "Sadly not all humans are polite. In fact, some are just downright rude, but we're not all bad I suppose… There are lots of nice people out there too, some far nicer that I am, I'm sure."

"Well that's good to hear," Tailmon mused. "You humans have a rather beastly reputation amongst us Digimon. I was not expecting any kindness from your kind, so I was surprised with how well you've treated me."

"Well, human or not, you are a sentient being with intelligence whom I've brought into my home," Saguru stated, clearing his throat before continuing. "You are a guest here and, as my guest, of course I would treat you as one should treat a guest."

Tailmon smiled at the human boy and allowed herself to curl up beside him where he could still see her without much trouble.

"Is something wrong with you? The woman appeared to be distressed about your condition," she asked.

"Ah… I've – _cough_ – appeared to have gotten a bad head cold," Saguru coughed out before sniffing miserably. "Ugh… Spending all that time out in the cold rain will – _achoo_! – do that to us humans. Don't Digimon ever get sick?"

"Sick?" Tailmon mused, tilting her head. "Sometimes, I suppose. It's not uncommon for an Agumon to eat too much food and get a stomachache, and some of the younger Digimon get sniffles and sneezes when around too many of the plant Digimon, but few of us ever get sick with fever like you. We Digimon have more sense than to stay out in elements that we are unsuited for."

"Well excuse me for not thinking about getting out of the rain during our mad dash away from the garbage monster," Saguru huffed, but the boy was smiling so Tailmon had to assume that the boy was simply being a Wisemon and trying to make light of his present condition.

Tailmon leveled an amused look at the snarky human as they continued to trade bantery dialogue. She found that she liked Saguru and hadn't thought about leaving once since she'd first woken up. She did, however, duck back down under the nest-thing that Saguru had called a bed when she heard the woman coming back.

"I made some chicken noodle soup for you, Botchama," the old human announced as she reentered the chamber with a tray. "I've also brought you some cold medicine for you to take. I don't want you leaving your room at all today. You are to remain in bed and rest, only getting up to use the toilet."

"Yes, Baaya," Saguru sighed.

"Good," the old woman stated crisply. "Unfortunately, I received a call from your father and have to go run some errands. I expect I'll be gone all day, but I'll try to stop back around noon to give you something for lunch."

"I'm not a child anymore Baaya," Saguru protested. "I can get up and make my own lunch. You just go and take care of those errands. No sense in making Father mad at the both of us."

"Your father is not mad at you, Botchama," Baaya said sternly.

"No, just disappointed that his no-good son has no sense to stay out of the rain after running around after the KID again," Saguru huffed bitterly.

The old woman only sighed in reply to Saguru's statement and left the chamber without another word. Tailmon waited until she couldn't hear the woman again before climbing back onto the bed-nest. The boy was sitting up now propped up by many poufy things like the one she'd slept on, but he looked a little depressed as he stirred the contents of a broth in a strange looking bowl; it didn't look like it was made out of wood or rock.

Saguru looked like he was in need of a distraction, so she decided to ask him what the various items situated on his lap were and about the other things she could see in his chamber. This seemed to cheer him up a bit as he went into a kind of lecture mode as he answered her questions and explained about the various things in his personal chamber that he called a "bedroom." He even offered her some of the broth that he'd been given by the woman – Baaya – who was his caretaker of sorts. It tasted pretty good, even though it was lacking in anything of solid substance. The noodles and small chucks of meat that did occasionally appear in the broth were hardly enough to fill even her stomach. How he was supposed to get well drinking only broth was beyond her. If anything, it only made the boy's nose run more.

Once everything in the room had been explained, he reached over the side is the bed and pulled out a flat rectangular device that he opened and turned on. He called it a laptop computer. Tailmon found this to be a most intriguing device she'd seen thus far because it showed her many things. With it, Saguru was able to show her various kinds of human dwellings with many types of rooms, people, and some were of lands outside of the one they were currently in. They were in the land known as Japan, or something like that. A lot of the images that he showed her were from the boy's homeland, London, where his mother lived – she was very pretty and Saguru looked a lot like her. Tailmon was fascinated by all of the different kinds of humans out there and how big and vast the human world was compared to the small pocket of the Digital World that she knew.

Saguru looked like he was growing tired though, so she asked him if he could show her how to use the laptop so that she could explore it's contents on her own. Unfortunately, she didn't know the human's writing system, so the laptop without Saguru's help was useless to her. He did pull up a few series of moving images – videos he called them – for her to watch while he slept. She found them to be entertaining enough. The first one was an informative video of some sort on Japan, explaining the culture and it's people. The second video was a language video. It made her realize that the language that she had been speaking with Saguru was called Japanese, and that this video was teaching her English, the language of Saguru's homeland. The third and final video was a rather strange one. The people in it didn't look real and it had these strange creature things called spirits. It was amusing though, so she found herself caught up in the story of this little not-real-but-still-human-child Chihiro as she found work at a spirit-run building called a bathhouse…

But before she could find out how the girl's first night working at that place was, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching from outside the rectangle of wood that she'd learned was called a door. There were two pairs of footsteps this time, and neither of them were the old human woman's shuffling gait. She paused the video she'd been watching, folded the top half that displayed the images back onto it's bottom half, and set it back inside the bag that she'd seen Saguru pull it from. She then nudged the sleeping human awake.

"Someone's coming," she hissed, "and it's not Baaya."

Saguru blinked sleepily up at her, coughing into one of his hands momentarily before turning his head towards the bedroom door. The metal insert that opened the door rattled, and Tailmon dashed back under the bed as the door began to open.

"Kuroba-kun? Aoko-kun?" Saguru's surprised voice called out as Tailmon saw another human boy and a human girl enter the room. Both looked to be around Saguru's age, but both had dark blue eyes, messy brown hair – the girl's was longer – and wore matching outfits. Twins perhaps? They certainly looked alike enough to be family.

"Hakuba-kun!" the girl gasped, rushing over to Saguru's bedside. "You look awful! What happened?"

"A KID heist followed by a rainstorm," Saguru coughed.

"What were you doing out in that downpour?!" the girl cried rather loudly. Tailmon flinched at how loud she was compared to how quiet Saguru had been when they were talking earlier.

"I couldn't get a cab or take a bus," Saguru sighed. "I was covered from head to toe in KID's slimy mess. Anything I touched stuck to me like glue, and I didn't want to make an even bigger mess by getting into someone's vehicle, so I walked home last night. All my clothes were ruined and I'll have to throw out my favorite coat."

Tailmon's eyes narrowed when she noticed the subtle fidgeting of the other boy, who'd remained by the door. He looked nervous… no… not quite nervous. Guilty perhaps? She couldn't tell. The boy's expression cleared too quickly for her to be sure.

"You must have taken the long way home then, Haku-baka," the boy snorted. "It didn't really start pouring until an hour after the heist. You should have had plenty of time to get home before then."

"Ba-Kaito!" the girl screeched. "Isn't it obvious? Hakuba-kun stuck around late to help my dad clean up KID's mess again, and even so, it was raining pretty hard even after the heist ended. Being out in the rain for any long period of time could get someone sick. Even you had the sniffles this morning you idiot."

"I'm fine Aoko-kun," Saguru sighed. "Really. It's just a head cold."

The girl huffed and must have sent an angry look at the other boy because he was fidgeting again.

"I'm just a little surprised that you two are here," Saguru coughed, the bed creaking and informing Tailmon that he was moving. "I must have slept for quite a while since it appears to be a lot later than I thought it was upon waking."

"Well that's good!" the Aoko girl said encouragingly. "My Otousan says that one should get lots of rest when they are ill."

"Well I think I've had plenty for a while, if it's already after four," Saguru sighed, bed creaking again as he moved.

"Oh, you needn't get up!" Aoko protested. "If you need something, I could get it for you."

"Ah…" Saguru stuttered. "That isn't necessary. What I need at the moment isn't really something you can help me with."

"Why not?" the human girl asked.

"Aoko, he's been in bed all day," the other boy snickered, rocking back onto his heels.

"So?" Aoko asked.

Some sort of silent conversation seemed to be going on between the three humans because neither of them spoke for a few awkward seconds. Tailmon couldn't see Saguru, Aoko was too close to the bed for her to see anything above the girl's shins, and she couldn't really decipher the other boy's expressions other than his smirk. Finally, Aoko gasped.

"Oh! Um… Right! Sorry. Ah…"

"I-It's quite alright, Aoko-kun," Saguru stuttered behind a couple of coughs. "If you two could excuse me for a minute…"

"No rush," the other boy – Kaito, Kuroba, Ba-Kaito, whatever he was called – snickered.

Saguru's bare feet hit the floor and made their way towards the other door in the chamber that led to the room that Tailmon recalled being washed in last night. A "bathroom," she believed it was called. That had been a fun room to have explained because the human got so flustered when explaining the thing called a toilet. It was what the humans apparently used to relieve themselves and dispose of their excrement.

"Really, Aoko?" Kuroba chuckled softly once Saguru was out of the bedroom. "You couldn't tell he needed to use the restroom?"

"Shut up, Ba-Kaito," the girl grumbled, moving around to the other side of the bed. There was a clatter as she moved a few things before she was heading back towards the door they'd come in through, carrying the tray with dishes that had contained Saguru's previous meal.

"This soup has gone cold. I'm going to go make something else for him," she called out over her shoulder.

"Good idea," the boy called after her. "I doubt he's had anything since breakfast."

Tailmon then heard a whooshing sound come from behind the bathroom door and a minute later Saguru reentered his bedroom.

"Why are you here, Kuroba?" Saguru sighed, sounding irritated as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I'm hurt, Hakuba," the boy – Kuroba apparently – sighed, hand reaching up to clutch at his chest. "Can't a friend check in on you?"

Saguru didn't respond, and the way that Kuroba was shifting uneasily again made Tailmon want to see what kind of look Saguru was giving the other human male.

"Ok, fine. We're here to drop off your missed schoolwork and to check up on you for Baaya-san. She called my cellphone and told me where we could find your spare house key to get in… so I _didn't_ break into your house!" Kuroba added quickly at the end. "We entered the premises through legal means with permission!"

"Like Aoko-kun would have let you pick the lock anyway," Saguru huffed.

"You'd be surprised with what she lets me get away with these days," Kuroba chuckled.

Saguru didn't respond and the silence and tension was thick between the two human males.

"Look, I'm sorry," Kaito sighed. "I didn't mean for you to get caught out in the rain. When we heard that you called in sick, Aoko ripped me a new one all morning."

"I'm sorry I missed that," Saguru said, sounding amused. "How have things been now that she knows that you're KID?"

"She ignores it for the most part unless something happens with her dad, or if someone gets hurt – honestly, she has had no faith in KID's No-One-Gets-Hurt Policy since she found out that I'm KID," Kuroba grumbled. "Or, in your case, when someone gets sick. You must be a special case though, because I heard from Ran-chan and Kazuha-chan on our way over here that Kudo and Hattori got sick too, and Aoko's not chewing me out over them!"

Saguru snorted. "What's their excuse for getting sick? Granted, Kudo lives on the other side of Tokyo, but they weren't covered in your sticky slime. They could have taken public transportation."

"Dunno," The other boy shrugged. "Whatever happened, it's apparently Hattori's fault. Kazuha-chan sounded quite livid on the phone when talking to Aoko."

Saguru chuckled.

"…Did the slime really ruin all your clothes?" Kuroba asked.

Tailmon perked up during this part of the conversation. She wondered how much Saguru was going to tell this boy about what had happened last night.

"Basically," Saguru answered. "The rain helped run it into the under layers. I suppose I could try to salvage the dress shirt, but I feel that it would be more trouble than it's worth for just a shirt. The pants and my outer jacket are completely ruined, however."

"Was that jacket really your favorite?" the other boy flinched.

"It was my current favorite, yes," Saguru sighed. "Mother had gotten it for me the last time she was in Paris."

"Why the hell were you wearing a designer jacket to a KID heist?" Kuroba scoffed.

"It wasn't designer, believe it or not," Saguru sighed. "It was from a simple department store and was on sale because it was part of last season's line of clothes. She thought that I might like it because it's design looked like it was based off of Sherlock Holmes' iconic trench coat. And as for wearing it at your heist, I honestly never thought that I'd be drenched in your miserable concoction. Drizzled with it – yes; splashed – highly likely; covered – possibly; but _drenched_ to the point that it was _dripping_ off of me like molasses? No! If I am happy about anything that occurred last night, it is the fact that you stole my pocket watch again and still have it in your possession… You'd _better_ still have it in your possession, Kuroba."

The Kuroba boy was fidgeting again, a hand going inside his clothes to pull out a circular thing with a long chain attached. Kuroba tossed it to Saguru.

"I was up late trying to scrub every last bit of that gunk off, you twat," Saguru huffed, coughing a bit at the end. There was a click, the sound of ticking, and then the snap of something closing. "Thank you for keeping this safe for me. I suppose I should say that much."

"…Would it make you feel any better if I told you that the trap was meant for Hattori?" Kuroba asked sheepishly.

"…Maybe. It would have if I hadn't fallen for it myself," Saguru grumbled. "Hearing that I've fallen for something that was meant for _Hattori_ of all people actually makes me feel a little worse about the whole debacle."

"Oh, come on Hakuba!" Kuroba whined. "I didn't mean for all that to happen last night!"

"It didn't stop you from laughing your fool head off about it," Saguru huffed testily.

"It would have been weird if KID hadn't laughed," Kuroba pouted, sounding sincerely sorry. "You have a history of being KID's biggest longstanding rival. You're considered the KID expert in the Task Force and out of the three detectives that chase him, you know the most about his activities. We may be friends, but you and KID are rivals. You chase, he runs."

"There you go speaking in third person again about your alter ego, even though we're the only two here," Saguru sighed.

"Habit," Kuroba bit out, exasperatedly. "Look, Hakuba, I really am sorry about what happened last night."

"I know," Saguru hummed, sounding amused again. "It's just funny to see you actually trying to apologize to me, when not even a month ago, you'd have taken great enjoyment out of my misfortune. I suppose I'm still getting used to us being actual friends."

"Sadistic prick," Kuroba grumbled before sighing and walking over to the bed.

He must have plopped down and dragged Saguru back with him, because the bed lurched, Saguru let out an indignant squawk, and Tailmon couldn't see either of the boys anymore as Saguru's feet disappeared from her sight over the edge of the bed. The two human boys began to trail off into amusing, but uninformative banter, so Tailmon settled herself deep under the bed and decided to take a little nap. She'd have to ask Saguru about the two human children after they left, but she was content to know that he knew them both well enough that the two of them being in his home wasn't a problem, and that he wasn't in any danger. She could now hear the two boys chuckling about something concerning that Hattori person they'd mentioned earlier – it sounded like a revenge prank of some kind like the ones she was used to the Gazimon planning back home. With a fond smile, Tailmon curled up on the soft grass – carpet! Saguru had called it carpet – and fell asleep, dreaming about the little prankster Digimon back home picking on a strange distorted looking human girl in pink wandering around a bathhouse and of Saguru who was washing her fur again in one of the big round tubs.

* * *

Writing Kaito and Aoko was a lot of fun too. :) Sorry if any of the MK characters are OC (especially Saguru), but I tried by best to keep everyone in character. As a reminder, this takes place AFTER DC & MK events, so Aoko knows about Kaito being the KID (how she knows will be explained in a later chapter). And just so that everyone is on the same page; Shinichi, Ran, Shiho/Ai, Heiji, Kazuha, Saguru, Kaito, and Aoko all know about KID and Shinichi/Conan (this will also be explained later). For now that is all you need to know. Hopefully I'll be able to introduce Savers characters next chapter! For now, I hope you've enjoyed curious!Tailmon and fluffy Hakuba and Kaito snark - they are quite chummy because they've been through quite a bit together by now.

Please leave a comment to let me know how this is going and if I should write another chapter in Tailmon's POV! Comments mean more inspiration to write! :D


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